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Hank Aaron, who hit 755 career home runs in the baseball’s majors, listens to tributes to him on the stage during a celebration of his 75th birthday, Thursday in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Amis)
Question: Should Major League Baseball take away Barry Bonds home run record, as a result of the steroids scandal in which he’s involved, and continue to recognize Aaron as the greatest home run hitter of all time?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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moscow_minidoka on February 06 at 9:33 a.m.
Easy answer - yes!
jazzyvandal on February 06 at 9:45 a.m.
Yes. Bonds is not only a cheat, but a not-so nice person.
JeanC on February 06 at 10:22 a.m.
Dang skippy!!!!! Hank got his record honestly and is a real athlete who didn’t need steroids to cheat his way to the top.
Charlie on February 06 at 11:09 a.m.
Hank and The Babe are still tops. Mr. Bonds, you are something else.
poolman on February 06 at 11:23 a.m.
*No, *but Bonds* record* should * be covered with asterisks*.
The reality is this - no one cares at this point. Baseball is becoming more and more irrelevant all the time. The contrived all-star game drama (home field for the winning league), the fact that the league looked the other way during the steroid era when it was obvious guys like Mark McGuire were juiced to the gills and the ever widening gap between small markets and large markets in terms of revenue and salary. The left side of the Yankee’s infield made more than the entire Florida Marlins roster last season. Baseball needs a new commissioner, it needs to modernize to appeal to younger fans, it needs to revenue share, it needs a salary cap and it needs to quit looking backward - the steroid era is over* move on*. There will be plenty of asterisks *to go around. er. Rodger Clemens
Cindy_H on February 06 at 11:29 a.m.
Oh, Poolman, I fear for your safety. HBO has traditionally been a baseball loving crowd and you’re talking heresy. I’ve never understood baseball fandom. Everyone knows soccer is a real sport that requires actual atheletic effort and men in short shorts.
Been nice knowin` ya.
JamesBond on February 06 at 11:37 a.m.
Baseball died in 1994.
DFO on February 06 at 12:09 p.m.
I (heart) baseball. I have since I first tuned in to hear Lon Simmons and the late Russ Hodges provide play-by-play for the S.F. Giants. I remain a Giants fan, with the Mariners a distant second. Even with the steroid scandal and all the overpaid players, I still look forward to mid-February with the reporting of pitchers and catchers. BTW, Aaron was a great player. But Willie Mays was better.
poolman on February 06 at 12:09 p.m.
I don’t know what that thing you speak of called soccer is…
Kage_Mann on February 06 at 12:16 p.m.
Taking steroids and then lying about not taking them,shows
bad character.Lets not be hypocritical though.There are alot of
B players in Cooperstown,who have shown bad judments,but are still ceremoniously enshrined there.Consider this:
(1) Babe Ruth,smoked, drank and gambled.Not exactly a good role model.
(2) Ty Cobb, Sharpened his spikes to make infielders fear injury,arranged to fight an umpire under the grandstand after the game etc.Yet, elected to the B Hall of Fame by the biggest margin in history.
(3)Gaylord Perry, one of the founders of the ‘spit ball’.He cheated, yet he’s a hall of famer.
(4)George Brett, the corked bat incident. He also,cheated.Yet,
he’s a hall of famer.
To summarize; the hall is full of players with bad character,liers,
cheats etc.History has shown that you only get there on ability alone.If that’s the case Pete Rose should be in the hall.I don’t think they should take Barry Bonds record away,no matter how much we dislike his actions.
Cindy_H on February 06 at 12:51 p.m.
Gooooooaaaaaaaaal!
hhuseland on February 06 at 1:05 p.m.
Absolutely. He took a record away from an honest man by cheating.
Nick_Adams on February 06 at 1:12 p.m.
Poolman: You might remember it from grade school. Although at the time we just called it “recess”.
Baseball, on the other hand, is a grand and glorious game. There is no clock. It is the only game where the defense controls the ball. The strategy involved can be subtle, yet completely useless with one swing of the bat.
Sure, there have been lots of bad guys to play the game. However, stop by a Little League field on a late spring day and you can see past all that and realize that it has been and always will be a game that is bigger and better than the individuals who play it.
19 days and counting until Spring Training opens. Ahhh!
hhuseland on February 06 at 1:18 p.m.
Actually, the spit ball was legal for many years in major league baseball. When it was finally outlawed and I don’t have the date, there were still a few that used it. they were tolerated, since it was once legal and they didn’t want a pitcher’s career to suffer for a change in rules. Gaylord Perry was not the originator of the spit ball. He was reputed to be one of the last still pitching that was accused of using it, when he retired from the Mariners.
poolman on February 06 at 1:21 p.m.
S&S - Most players in MLB where cheating during the “steroids era”. Not every guy on the juice could hit 71 home runs. Bonds was a unique athlete. He was doing 40/40 before he ever started the juice. Would have been a 1st ballot HOFer either way. Might not have caught Hank – but would have gotten close.
While you old timers love Hank - keep in mind. He was facing guys throwing absolute puss much of the time. That was the day of the 4 man rotation and the complete game (all 9). No short or long relievers, no set up guys. The fact is, hitting a round ball with a round bat is the hardest thing in all of sports to do. The juice might have helped a few out that were not hit directly on the sweet spot - but it is still hand-eye coordination - not pure muscle strength - like say for example with a cyclist, or a sprinter.
(incidentally – A-Rod will fly by Bonds in 4-5 years and this will all become a mute point)
thepoliticalgame on February 06 at 1:25 p.m.
Does anybody actually think of Bonds as the home run king? I sure don’t. Still Hammerin’ Hank in my mind.
Cabbage Boy on February 06 at 1:28 p.m.
I am with JB. I was a fan until 94. Never been back.
Poolman, I have heard that excuse before about steroids and baseball. Strength is only one factor in steroid use. A minor one in baseball. If they weren’t helpful, they wouldn’t be so prevalent.
Take Macguire for instance. He only broke the record because he took a version of roids. Why? Because they helped him recover and stay “healthy”. Roids is often about the recovery time from injuries, not the strength.
Escapee on February 06 at 1:45 p.m.
I’m sure Bonds’ record stands for ‘something’, but am not sure what. Look at the way the SF Giants ditched him, once he’d broken the home run record. They, and everyone else, didn’t dare want to sign him last year. SF was smart, actually; they milked the Home Run Chase for all it was worth, and when it was over, “bye bye Barry…”
19 days ‘till spring training? YAAAY!!!
poolman on February 06 at 1:53 p.m.
I personally don’t have an issue with steroids. What is so bad about “quick recovery” and “staying healthy”. I don’t want to hear about liver disease or shrinking gonads - that was the old straight testosterone garbage - not the new clean designer stuff.
I like home runs. I like pitchers throwing 100 MPH. What is MLB without performance enhancing drugs? Its singles and bunts, its defensive, pitcher dominated ball - Yawwwn.
JohnA on February 06 at 1:55 p.m.
Today’s honest players have little to no regard for Bonds. They don’t understand how a future Hall of Famer without steroids (30 homers/30 steals a year) could taint the game by using them. McGuire’s and Bonds’ bogus slugging numbers simply lessen the awesome records of clean players, like part-time north Idaho resident Derrek Lee. His 48 homers and 50 doubles in 2005, while winning the NL batting title for the Cubs, are Ruthian in their own right, but only a footnote in the 70-homer era.
To me, that’s the biggest shame.
JohnA on February 06 at 2:26 p.m.
Poolman: “The reality is this - no one cares at this point. Baseball is becoming more and more irrelevant all the time.”
I’m not so sure about that, Pool. Major League Baseball set an attendance record in both leagues in 2007, and surpassed that record in 2008 in the National League. Indeed, seven teams including the Cubs, Brewers and Yankees, set alltime average attendance records last year.
So, even with steroids, high ticket prices and prima donnas like A-Rod, baseball is still America’s Pasttime and I think it always will be.
poolman on February 06 at 2:48 p.m.
JohnA - how can you be so sure Lee wasn’t on the clear when he put up 48 knocks and 50 doubles? No one will ever know who did what, for how long and to what degree. And the drug makers will continue to be one step ahead of the testers. So why worry about it. Baseball fans need to get over the numbers thing and just learn to enjoy the game. And besides that - baseball has a rich culture of cheating; stealing signs, the spit ball, the corked bat, too much pine tar, the list goes on. When was the last time you saw a shortstop actually touch second base on a double play?
Kage_Mann on February 06 at 2:58 p.m.
What I meant to say in my previous post is that Gaylord Perry,
founded the ‘Perry Spitball’.To me he’s the godfather of the spitballer’s and the most famous.He took the art of the spitball to a whole different level and was it’s greatest innovator.He experimented with alot of different things.
Actually, the spitball was outlawed in 1920, but the ones who were using it at the time were allowed to keep using it until 1934.
I heard that Mark McGuire used HGH. I don’t think HGH is technically a steroid, but nonetheless outlawed by baseball.
hmoffsuite on February 06 at 3:18 p.m.
Bonds used to spend a lot of time down here in Scottsdale. This is the Giants home for spring ball. Bonds wasn’t very well liked down here, ‘cause he’s such a jerk. Spring ball down here is a great deal for spectators, btw.
Cindy_H on February 06 at 4:09 p.m.
“Baseball, on the other hand, is a grand and glorious game. There is no clock.”
Omigosh! So that’s why the games never. seem. to. end.
Stickman on February 06 at 7:37 p.m.
I can’t resist on this issue. He is a cheat and a jerk. Hammerin’ Hank’s record should stand. Please Mr. Bonds, fade away, and quickly.
thawtfulreader on February 06 at 10:42 p.m.
Baseball is for wimps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om_yq4L3M_I
Kage_Mann on February 07 at 10:44 a.m.
Now, future hall-of-shamer A-Rod has tested positive for anabolic steroid use.The news stated he tested positive for steroid use back in 2003. Why do they wait 5 years to release this info?